Tag: main course
Plantains and Beans
Plantains and Beans
This is eaten once a month in my household. Every time I make plantains and beans, it stinks up my apartment building and the city block in the best way possible. While there are many steps to making this, it is relatively easy and you can interchange the ingredients to your liking. I like to have 2 types of meat in mine. I will always have some type of bone in smoked turkey; either necks, wings, or drumsticks. You can find these at pretty much any ethnic market, already cut up into chunks. For the other meat, I will use some type of pork; either pork shoulder or sirloin, cut into smaller stew meat sized pieces. But the option is really up to you. If you want this to be meatless, please do. If you want this to be vegan, use a vegetable stock and omit the dried crawfish.As far as beans go, it’s really up to you. You can use black beans, red beans, kidney beans, black eyed peas, etc. I used a Dominican red bean. I personally prefer using a dried bean as opposed to a canned bean. Canned beans usually contain extra salt and don’t absorb the juices like a dried bean will. A 1lb bag of dried beans will more then double in quantity once soaked and boiled, so I use a half a bag. They also cost a fraction of the price of canned and take up less room in your cupboard.If you aren’t a fan of kale, you can substitute another green such as spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, etc.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 lbs meat of your choosing (Beef, pork, chicken, smoked turkey)
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 plantains sliced 1/2 inch thick
- 1/2 cup dried crushed crawfish
- 1/3 cup palm oil
- 4 cups boiled beans (black, red, kidney)
- 3 whole habanero
- 1 bunch kale chopped
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
Instructions
- Soak your dried beans overnight. Boil them until soft. You can definitely use canned beans, but I think they are too soft and don’t absorb as much flavor.
- In a dutch oven, add the cooking oil over medium high heat. Sauté the onions for 3-4 minutes until translucent. Add the habanero.
- Add any meat that is raw and brown with the onion. I used 1 lb of pork sirloin that I cut into cubes.
- Add 4 cups of chicken stock and smoked paprika. I also add and package of smoked turkey necks. Simmer covered for 1 hour.
- Smoke a doobie.
- Add sliced plantains, palm oil, and dried crushed crawfish. Simmer for another 20 minutes. If you have a shellfish allergy, omit the dried crawfish.
- Pack a bowl. Get higher.
- Add the kale and beans. Cook for another 20 minutes uncovered until it is to the thickness of your liking.
- Repeat step 7.
- Enjoy this! Comfort food at it’s best!
Thai Pork Laab
Thai Pork Laab (ground pork and mint salad)
This is a very quick and easy recipe. It has a great contrast in flavor between the spiciness of the chili flake, the sourness of lime, and the freshness of mint leaves. Plus, it’s a salad made out of pork.Laab is typically served on shredded lettuce with sticky rice or as a wrap with green or red leaf lettuce. Make sure to wash your lettuce.
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 tbsp meat seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic, onion)
- 3 branches mint leaves
- 1 tbsp crushed chili flakes
- 1 green onion chopped
- 2 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 large shallot chopped
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp crushed toasted rice powder
Instructions
How to make toasted rice powder
- Add 2 tbsp of uncooked rice to a dry skillet.
- Toast on medium heat until brown.
- In either a spice grinder or a mortar and pestal, grind into a powder.
Making the salad
- Cook on medium heat in a skillet the ground pork. Stir in the meat seasoning once browned. Set aside and let cool off.
- In a bowl, mix mint, crushed chili flakes, lime juice, green onion, cilantro, shallots, and fish sauce. Add in the cooled off ground pork. Mix together. Sprinkle the toasted rice powder on the pork salad and mix together some more.
- Serve on top of a bed of shredded lettuce or serve as a lettuce wrap with whole green or red leaf lettuce.
Thai Noodle Soup with Pork Belly
Kuay Jub (Thai noodle soup with pork belly)
Kuay Jub. Thai rice noddle soup with pork belly. As far as I’m concerned, this is the ultimate comfort food. I recently ate this for the first time at my favorite local Thai restaurant, On’s Kitchen, and have never been so satisfied. I went home afterwards and took a nice nap, cradling my filled gut. This is a soup that will make you want to change your undies afterwards. Climactic. While there is a lot of steps and ingredients to make this soup, they are all fairly simple. The pork belly is the only thing that really requires a lot of time to cook. Cooking the belly at 225 first helps render out a lot of the fat. Turning it up to 400 for another 20 minutes will make the skin nice and crispy. If you are good at multitasking, while the pork belly is cooking, fry up the tofu and drain on a paper towel. Hard boil your eggs. Boil your rice noodle flakes. Make your soup stock. Get 2 birds stoned at once.
Servings: 2
Ingredients
Pork Belly
- 2 8 oz skin on pork belly slabs
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1/8 cup vinegar
- 1 tbsp salt
Noodle soup
- rice noodle flakes
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 2 hard boiled eggs
- 2 cups fried tofu
- 5 cups water
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tbsp 5 spice powder
- 5 minced garlic cloves
- 1 tsp dried black peppercorns
- 1 tsp cilantro stalks diced
- 1/3 lb sliced pork
Garnish
- green onion
- cilantro
- fried garlic
Instructions
Pork Belly
- Mix fish sauce and vinegar together. Add the pork belly. Coat on all side and let marinate for 10 minutes.
- Put pork belly in a baking dish skin side up. Poke slits with a knife on the skin side to help render out the fat and make the skin crispy. Add salt to the skin side.
- Preheat oven to 225. Roast pork belly for 45 minutes. Turn up oven to 400 and roast pork belly for another 20 minutes until skin is crispy. Set aside
Noodle Soup
- In a stock pot, bring water, light and dark soy sauce, 5 spice powder, sugar, garlic, cilantro stalks, and peppercorns to a boil. Turn down to medium heat and add fried tofu and hard boiled eggs. Simmer covered for 15 minutes. Add sliced pork and cook for another 2 minutes.
- While the stock is cooking, soak 2 servings of rice noodle flakes in cold water for 3 minutes. Then add the rice noodle flakes to boling water and cook for 5 minutes. Drain.
Soup Assembly
- Put rice noodle flakes on the bottom. On top of them, in the center, add bean sprouts. On the left side of the sprouts, add chunks of pork belly. On the right side of the sprouts, add chunks of fried tofu from the stock. Take out one of the hard boiled eggs from the stock and slice in half. Put below he bean sprouts.
- Spoon over the soup ingredients the broth with the sliced pork. Garnish the top with green onion, cilantro, and fried garlic.
